Climb Faster

Nic White Knows Everything There Is To Know About The 947 Cycle Challenge. He’s Won It Twice, And Raced All 21 Of Them.

- Jonathan Ancer

The year is 1997. A new race has been announced that will take riders through the heart of Johannesburg – the 947 Cycle Challenge. And the AIG team has a plan: 23-year-old Nic White will go out early and try to wear down the opposition in the chase, so that one of the top riders in their team can pull off the win…

White, who had been plying his trade on the amateur scene in Europe for four years, had hit form that November, and was itching to race in Joburg – his own backyard. The purple jacarandas were in full bloom.

The starter’s gun fired; and within the first kilometre, four riders – including a youngster called Robbie Hunter, who was causing the top riders at the time to sit up and take notice – made a break for it.

White was one of the four. “Robbie was the big danger,” he remembers.

The four-man breakaway group stuck to each other, until about 10 kays in there was a hotspot sprint. Hunter won it, but White was watching closely. “After the sprint, Robbie sat up – and that’s when I decided to go for it.”

White broke away from the break. They never saw him again.

A big motivator to stay in front of the chasing peloton – in addition to being crowned the winner of the inaugural 947 race – was that White was worried about his wheels. There were wet spots on the road; plus he was riding on carbon wheels, and the braking surface wasn’t great. White was nervous about skidding, and being taken out by the bunch.

He won because he was scared of his wheels.

When White crossed the line, he felt overwhelmed. He had been travelling to and from Belgium for so long; and as all his generation of riders can attest, the rewards were few and far between. It was exhausting. The win helped him make the decision to pursue his cycling career in South Africa.